Focus on watershed health and best management practices for small acreage properties, feral hogs and a feature on rainwater harvesting.
A Lone Star Healthy Streams workshop will be held on June 24th at the Wimberly Community Center – Johnson Hall (14068 Ranch Rd 12 Wimberley).
The free event is open to the public and will run from 8:00 a.m. to Noon with a light refreshments for all attendees.
Workshop content will focus on watershed health, water quality, and conservation strategies. Professionals will discuss best management practices for grazing livestock and feral hogs in watersheds throughout Hays County. There will be an in depth look at rainwater harvesting both through discussion and on site display.
The workshop is offered as an educational component of the Blanco-Cypress Watershed Protection Plan in collaboration with Hays County Parks and Natural Resources, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, and the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board (TSSWCB).
Program focus
The workshop will discuss watershed function, water quality, rainwater harvest, and best-management practices to reduce bacterial contamination. Area focus will be on conservation strategies for small acreage properties, management of grazing livestock and feral hogs.
“The goal of the Lone Star Healthy Streams program is to protect Texas waterways from bacterial contamination originating from livestock, wildlife, and invasive species that may pose a serious health risk to Texans,” said Leanne Wiley, AgriLife Extension program specialist and Lone Star Healthy Streams coordinator, Bryan-College Station. “The aim is to increase awareness of non-point source pollution, provide education materials to Texas producers and landowners, and encourage implementation.”
Protecting the Watershed
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Hays County Parks and Natural Resources, and TSSWCB advocate for best management practices that will have a positive impact on the watersheds throughout Hays County. In addition to the sessions on livestock and feral hog management, Jonas Rosenthal, the Watershed Coordinator, will share an update on the Blanco-Cypress Watershed Protection Plan and status of other watersheds in the county. It will include a brief background on the project, as well as current water quality monitoring data.
Funding for this effort is provided through a Clean Water Act Section 319(h) nonpoint source grant administered by the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. For more information on the workshop, contact Wiley at 979-321-5950 or leanne.wiley@ag.tamu.edu; or Jonas Rosenthal, Watershed Coordinator, at 512 557 5911 or jonas.rosenthal@hayscountytx.gov or Aaron McCoy, AgriLife Extension agriculture and natural resources agent, Hays County, at 512-393-2120 or aaron.mccoy@ag.tamu.edu
This educational program provides well owners the opportunity to have their well water samples tested for common contaminants including fecal coliform, E. coli bacteria, nitrates, and high salinity. An explanation and management practices will be discussed on April 8th.
Since 2008, the Plum Creek Watershed Partnership, in collaboration with Keep Lockhart Beautiful, has hosted the annual Keep Lockhart Beautiful/Plum Creek/Lockhart Springs/Town Branch Cleanup and Environmental Fair, a day when we gather together to pick up trash before it makes its way into our waterways.
From 2008 to 2020, more than 2,000 volunteers removed over 10,000 pounds of trash in what has become the largest and one of the longest-running annual volunteer events in Caldwell County. In 2019, 200+ volunteers cleared more than 500 pounds of trash from city property and waterways—all in a matter of hours.
New rules in 2020! This year the Annual Keep Lockhart Beautiful/Plum Creek/Lockhart Springs/Town Branch Cleanup looked a little different. In order to maintain the safety of our community, it was a month-long event that ran from October 15 to November 15 in an effort to be social-distance friendly. As our community navigates the pandemic, we at the Plum Creek Watershed Partnership are embracing the necessary changes to accomplish our goals.
We have been busy processing the cleanup data, which includes results of all clean up team efforts, tallying the pounds of trash collected, and counting the individual items picked up. We feel so grateful for all of the volunteers that work so hard to clean our local waterways.
We cleaned areas from Kyle, through Lockhart and all the way to Luling. That’s more than 50 miles of waterway cleaned!
2020 Results!
- Plum Creek Watershed Partnership conducted two official cleanups.
- Volunteers dedicated 170 hours to cleaning the waterways.
- More than 500 pounds of litter were removed.
A Texas Watershed Steward workshop on the relationship between land stewardship and water quality in the Plum Creek Watershed was held on September 2 at the Luling Foundation Agriculture Demonstration Farm. The Workshop was presented by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension program staff in cooperation with the Plum Creek Watershed Partnership.
The Texas Watershed Steward program is a one-day educational training event designed to inform watershed residents about ways to improve and protect community water resources. A watershed is an area of land that water flows across, through or under on its way to a stream, river, lake, ocean, or other body of water. EVERYONE lives in a watershed, and everyone should be a Texas Watershed Steward.
Attendees of the workshop received a copy of the Texas Watershed Steward Handbook and a certificate of completion. The Texas Watershed Steward program also offers four hours of continuing education for the following professional disciplines: soil and water management for certified crop advisers; professional engineers; AICP certified planners (4 CM & 1.5 law); certified teachers; professional geoscientists; certified landscape architects; certified floodplain managers; and each of the following Texas Commission on Environmental Quality occupational licensees: wastewater system operators, public water system operators, on-site sewage facility installers, and landscape irrigators. In addition, three general continuing education units are offered for Texas Department of Agriculture pesticide license holders, and two credits are offered for nutrient management specialists.
Funding for this effort is provided through a federal Clean Water Act §319(h) Nonpoint Source Grant administered by the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
If you are interested in attending a future Texas Watershed Steward Workshop, please contact Plum Creek Watershed Coordinator, Stephen Risinger.